Archive for September, 2010

Glenn Beck – born again Christian? Some evangelical leaders as well as many rank and file Christians have somehow been fooled into thinking just that, and some of them just because Beck used the term “atonement”, as if no self-respecting Mormon would ever use such a “Christian” term. Obviously those Christians haven’t ever looked deeply into Mormon theology, otherwise they would see that Mormon theology indeed does use that term, as well as other “Christian” terms.

So you ask, what’s wrong with that? What’s wrong indeed. While the terminology used sounds the same, the meaning of the terminology is very different. The Mormon view of Christ’s atonement is that it was somehow limited – meaning that Christ’s death on the cross would not also cleanse man from really serious sin, like murder, and that man would have to atone for it himself by the shedding of his own blood, in contradiction to what it says in the Bible, that Christ died once and for all for all of the sins of mankind.

They also believe that God the Father and Jesus have physical bodies and that God the Father was once a man just like one of us. They also believe that there was also a God the Mother, although they don’t refer to “her” very often. They also claim that Jesus was the result of a physical union between God the Father and Mary. They also claim that Jesus and Lucifer are brothers – spirit brothers to be more exact, since Lucifer was never allowed bodily form due to his rebellion in the spirit world. They also believe that we can become gods if we are good and faithful to all of the Mormon doctrines and do all of the works required by the many Mormon ceremonies and other tasks.

They also believe that one can be saved even in the afterlife through something called Baptism for the Dead, or proxy baptism, and this particular doctrine has gotten the Mormon church in more than a bit of trouble with both the Jews and the Catholics, resulting in some legal action on the part of the Jews and some official directives issued by Mormon leadership where they told Mormons to stop proxy baptizing Jewish and Catholic dead people. Mormons base proxy baptism on essentially one verse, 1 Corinthians 15:29, but the writer of the Corinthians is not establishing proxy baptism, but rather telling the Corinthians NOT to do it, instead telling them that because Christ rose from the dead, all Christians will also rise from the dead when Christ returns. In other words, proxy baptism is NOT Biblical. In proxy baptism, spirit ministers go to the dead and offer them the chance to become Mormons and thus go to heaven. This is called Second Chance, which again, is not found anywhere in the Bible.

Just like Islam, Mormons also teach make the claim that they are the one true church, although they have toned down their rhetoric about it. Now they make the claim by saying that there was a great apostasy some time after Christ left the earth and the original apostles died, and that it took Joseph Smith, aided by the Book of Mormon and God the father and Jesus and others to restore true Christianity. Yet they also make the claim that they are not Christians, saying that those who do claim to be Christians are not truly Christian – only Mormonism is truly Christian.

Finally, and getting back to Beck, his claims about the American Indians as being part of the “lost tribes of Israel” is simply ludicrous. Granted that at one time it was more or less accepted fact, as was made evident through books like James Adair’s “History of the American Indians” back in 1763, I believe, but it has since been proven many times over that they are of a different ethnic group entirely and that they came to the Americas largely via the ancient land bridge where the Bering Strait is today. Beck’s claims that the Smithsonian was/is allegedly in some kind of huge conspiracy with the government and other entities concerning the American Indians is equally absurd. For years, the Mormons claimed that the Smithsonian Institute considered the Book of Mormon to be a reliable source concerning the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Finally it got so bad that the Smithsonian issued a letter stating that they never endorse the Book of Mormon. Apparently that letter wasn’t good enough, so a second letter was also issued. It got so bad that the then current Prophet of the Mormon church had to issue a letter stating that until such time that legitimate evidence could be produced to substantiate Mormon claims about the Lamanite and Nephite civilizations, that they must stop making such claims. I guess that Glenn Beck never read any of those letters, or else he would not persist in his “unusual” claims, including that the Bat Creek Stone and others somehow prove Mormon claims.

I guess that Mormons do indeed live in their own reality, totally ignoring all Biblical and scientific fact. I believe that one of their early leaders said that they will have their own science, their own math, their own literature, and their own culture. It’s just too bad that they have left the real world behind.

The following is a reproduction of the letter from the Smithsonian Institute. Below it, there is a similar letter from the National Geographic society.

Information from the
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution Washington, D.C. 20560

Your recent inquiry concerning the Smithsonian Institution’s alleged use of the Book of Mormon as a scientific guide has been received in the Smithsonians Department of Anthropology.

The Book of Mormon is a religious document and not a scientific guide. The Smithsonian Institution has never used it in archaeological research and any information that you have received to the contrary is incorrect. Accurate information about the Smithsonians position is contained in the enclosed Statement Regarding the Book of Mormon, which was prepared to respond to the numerous inquiries that the Smithsonian receives on this topic.

Because the Smithsonian regards the unauthorized use of its name to disseminate inaccurate information as unlawful, we would appreciate your assistance in providing us with the names of any individuals who are misusing the Smithsonians name. Please address any correspondence to:

This is a similar letter from the National Geographic Society in response to similar Mormon claims.

National Geographic Society

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20036

January 11, 1990

Dear Mr. Larson:

Thank you for writing to the National Geographic Society.

The Society has never used the Book of Mormon to locate archaeological sites, and we do not believe that any of the places named in the Book of Mormon can be placed geographically by the evidence of archaeology. So far as we know there is no archaeological evidence to verify the history of early peoples of the Western Hemisphere as presented in the Book of Mormon.

I’ve read a number of newspaper articles and online posts recently from a variety of sources, both conservative and liberal, and it amazes me how the liberals in our country and elsewhere just don’t seem to “get it” about Islamic violence. Instead, it is always brought up by the liberal factions that either the violence was brought on by aggressive actions against Islam, or by offending Muslims in one way of another, or that whoever was on the receiving end of the violence “deserved” it. Corollary to those notions is the ever popular assertion that “only radical Islamists or Islamic nutcases” are ever responsible for the violence/acts of terror. If that is indeed the case, just how many thousands or hundreds of thousands of “radicals” or “nutcases” are there? Are we to believe that Islam, in spite of its claims of being a religion of peace, should be more appropriately be called a religion with a lot of radicals, and that they seem to have far more radicals than all of the other religions put together? Exactly how many of the thousands of acts of violence committed every year are we to credit to “nutcases”? Could it not be the case that many of the acts of violence or terrorism are actually endorsed by the Islamic leaders as being legitimate acts ordered by Allah as dictated by the Qu’ran and that they might actually be encouraging their followers to engage in those acts to carry out the will of Allah for the world? Excuse me if I am possibly in error but that is certainly the way it appears to me, based on what I have learned about Islam and its history since its beginnings in the 7th century. I will grant that the level of violence seems to be at a lower level than during the first few centuries, but then it seemed to rise again toward the end of the 19th century through the 1950’s, then slow for awhile, and then in the 1970’s, start increasing again. Are we headed again toward some kind of new world conflict where we will see a modern battle between Islamic forces and the “infidels” (read non-Muslims and Christians who refuse to submit/convert to Islam)? It is starting to look that way to me. Whether through the “verbal jihad” of the Ahmadi Muslims or the very real jihad of the other sects, as well as the assertions from the Islamic world that only the Qu’ran has the pure word of God, there appears to be a very real battle line being formed, and the non-Muslim people of the world would be well-advised to stand up for their way of life or risk losing it to the “converting sword” of Islam.

I realize that this sounds more than a bit dramatic and alarmist, but all one needs to do is look at what has already happened in Europe other countries around the world where Islam has taken root and one can see that as far as Islam is concerned, there indeed is no religion other than Islam and no God other than Allah and that those who resist face probable violence and/or death.

Again, those from the liberal and/or Islamic side of things will try to insist that Christians are no better, that they have committed just as many grievous acts of terror as the radicals of Islam, but frankly, the facts just don’t back their claims. They also point to the Crusades, claiming that it ws the Christians who acted first, when in fact they only acted after at least 300 years or more of Islamic violence and murder of Christians and non-Muslims in Christian lands. No my friends, the Crusaders were only trying to defend or rescue Christians and non-Muslims from death, rape, and torture at the hands of armies of Muslims. Were those Muslims just radicals and not representative of Islam?

It is my fervent desire that through this blog and others in the future, the US will wake from its slumbers and take a firm stand against the alleged religion of peace. Personally, I don’t have anything against Islam, even though I thoroughly disagree with it and am convinced that it is a false religion, and I pray daily that the “people of the book” will some day open their hearts to the true God – the Holy God of the Bible, and leave Islam.

Much fuss has been made over the violent passages in the Bible, and the people who make these claims try to say that there is no difference – that the Quran is no more violent than the Bible, or conversely that the Bible is as violent as the Quran. The following article should go a long way toward dispelling those claims.

Flying Hijacked Planes into Glass Houses

A response to the American Muslim article:Throwing Stones at the Quran from a Glass House

In an article entitled, “Throwing Stones at the Quran from a Glass House”, The American Muslim claims that the verses of violence and war in the Bible can be misread in “exactly the same way as some verses in the Qur’an” (emphasis ours). In other words, the on-line magazine alleges that, like the Quran, there are Biblical verses with open-ended commands to violence that are not bound by historical context within the passage itself.

Our first clue that this probably isn’t true is the scarcity of Christian terrorist groups. Not too many people are losing their heads to fanatics screaming praises to Jesus (or Moses, Buddha or the many Hindu gods either) as they are to shouts of “Allah Akbar!” That there are so many Islamic terrorist groups composed of fundamentalists (or purists) of the Muslim faith is enough to impress any reasonable person that there is something far more dangerous about Islam.

Nevertheless, to support their claim, The American Muslim quotes sixteen of the worst passages that the Bible has to offer in the way of violence. Others are alluded to as well, but delving into these particular verses should be a large enough sample to expose whatever sophistry might be at play.

Their first try is a passage from Deuteronomy that might appear to command present-day believers to take a city by force and slaughter the inhabitants on order from God:

“When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offer it terms of peace. If it agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor and shall serve you. However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. When the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike all the men in it with the edge of the sword. Only the women and the children and the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourself; and you shall use the spoil of your enemies which the LORD your God has given you. Only in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes” (Deuteronomy 20:10-17 – As quoted by The American Muslim

Except for the part about sparing women and children, this sounds similar to a verse from the Qur’an:

And when We would destroy a township We send commandment to its folk who live at ease, and afterward they commit abomination therein, and so the Word (of doom) hath effect for it, and we annihilate it with complete annihilation. (Quran 17:16)

But, in fact, the Biblical passage is not an open-ended command, but instead, a story of history bound within the text. Having trouble seeing this? That’s because the author of The American Muslim piece cleverly left out this part of the passage:

Yes, it turns out that this was a specific command, given at a specific time to the tribe of Israel concerning a discrete target. This is why Christians and Jews do not treat these verses as present-day imperatives.

Strategic omission is just one way that Muslim apologists manipulate Biblical passages. (In this case, The American Muslim editors did not even include an ellipsis in place of the omission, since it may have raised the suspicions of the reader).

The next passage that The American Muslim claims promotes violence is from the apostle Paul, who writes:

“Hymenaeus and Alexander I have delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.” (1Timothy 1:20)

The violence in the passage is not exactly evident from this reading. In the context of the previous verse, these two men “suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith,” but there is nothing to indicate that they were physically harmed as a result. It was the practice of the early Church to excommunicate apostates, and there is every reason to believe that this was the “fate” of these two individuals. They were expelled from the Church by Paul. The Christian Church does not advocate killing apostates.

Not much ambiguity there. Abu Bakr, the first caliph and several other Muslims testified that Muhammad had indeed put Muslim apostates to death. For this reason, the practice is coded in Islamic law.

The next passage that is supposed to inspire Christians to violence is the recounting of David’s victory against the Philistines:

“This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down, and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, Then David ran and stood over the Philistine, and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head with it…. And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armor in his tent. And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand.” (1 Samuel 17:46 – As Quoted by The American Muslim)

This is actually parts of verse 46 through 54. We won’t waste much time here, because it is apparent that this is a recounting of an historical event. The omitted passages from within the text make it even more obvious.

Compare this to the word of Allah in the Quran:

“I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them.” (Quran 8:12)

There is no historical context to mitigate this Qur’anic exhortation either in the verse or in those that surround it. (The American Muslim actually makes a monumental effort to bring historical context to the verse from sources external to the Qur’an in this article, which contains several inaccuracies regarding the timing of the “revelation” of the verse, the justification for attacking caravans, and the fate of hostages taken in battle, some of whom were actually put to death).

The next five passages quoted by The American Muslim, in trying to make the case that the Bible can be used to command violence, all suffer from the same problems as above:

“Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.”… And there is also with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse on the day when I went to Mahanaim; but when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the LORD, saying, I will not put you to death with the sword.’ Now therefore hold him not guiltless, for you are a wise man; you will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down with blood to Sheol.” (2 Samuel 16:9, 1 Kings 2:8)

” When they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedchamber, they smote him, and slew him, and beheaded him. They took his head, and went by the way of the Arabah all night, and brought the head of Ishbosheth to David at Hebron. And they said to the king, “Here is the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life; the LORD has avenged my lord the king this day on Saul and on his offspring.” (2 Samuel 4:7)

“That is not true. But a man of the hill country of Ephraim, called Sheba the son of Bichri, has lifted up his hand against King David; give up him alone, and I will withdraw from the city.” And the woman said to Joab, “Behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall.” Then the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab.” (2 Samuel 20:21)

“at Jezreel by this time tommorrow…And when the letter came to them, they took the king’s sons, and slew them, seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him at Jezreel. When the messenger came and told him, “They have brought the heads of the king’s sons,” he said, “Lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning.”. (2 Kings Chapter 10 verse 6) “God has now fulfilled the prophecy of the prophet Elijah. So Jehu put to death all who were left of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, as well as all of his close friends and priests, until he had left not one single survivor.” (2 Kings Chapter 10 verse 10) “He put to death all of Ahab’s house, who were left there and so blotted it out, in fulfillment of the word which YAHWEH had spoken to Elijah.” (2 Kings Chapter 10 verse 7)

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you. And when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.” (Deuteronomy 7:1-2)

No doubt these were bad days to be particular individuals by the name of Shimei, Ishbosheth, Sheba or Ahab, but they obviously aren’t around anymore to complain. Same with the tribes mentioned in the passage from Deuteronomy. This is history, of course, not some open-ended instruction like:

“Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and those who are with him are ruthless to the Unbelievers, but merciful to each other.” (Quran 48:29)

At this point, The American Muslim pulls two verses out of the New Testament Gospels. The first is quoted as if they are the words of Jesus:

“I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.”(Luke 19:26-27)

But, in fact, this is the tail end of a parable being told by Jesus. The words actually belong to one of the characters in his story.

Again, contrast this with the actual words of Muhammad:

[Allah’s Apostle said] “The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. “O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.” (Bukhari 52:256)

We don’t have to play the same games here that The American Muslim does to try and convince Christians that they should kill based on the words of a parable. Not only are these Muhammad’s own words, but there are many Muslims at this very moment who are trying to kill Jews in Israel. Their religious leaders quote this passage to inspire them.

Moving along to the second New Testament verse that supposedly advocates violence:

“Do not think that I have come to send peace on earth. I did not come to send peace, but a sword. I am sent to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (Matthew 10:34-35)

Though not quoted in the article, the passage actually goes on to say, “Your enemies will be the members of your own household. Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. ”

Obviously, Jesus is speaking of the coming hardships that will be suffered by Christians (ironically, the worst abusers eventually turned out to be Muslims). The “sword” is a metaphor for the persecution against believers, not an admonition for them to take up arms. In fact, elsewhere Jesus prevented one of his disciples from fighting on his behalf and rebuked him for doing so. In confirmation of this, none of his immediate followers formed an armed militia of any sort. There were no armies claiming to be “Christian” for many centuries.

By contrast, Muhammad was a military leader who killed people in battle, executed captives and enslaved women and children. When he said that “Jihad in the way of Allah elevates the position of a man in paradise” (Sahih Muslim 20:4645), his followers knew what he meant. They engaged in warfare following his death, which continues to this day.

The American Muslim then moves back to the Old Testament:

“I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.” (Exodus 23:27)

Is this an open-ended imperative for present-day Christians and Jews? Hardly. Here’s the next verse:

“I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way”

Again, not a good time to be a Hivate, Hittite, or a Canaanite… but who is these days?

By contrast, the Qur’an speaks ill of Christians, Jews, “unbelievers” and “pagans,” and commands its readers to “slay the infidel wherever ye find him.” The historical context of the verse is apparently not all that conspicuous, judging by the fact that so many Muslims are trying so hard to kill these people in the name of Allah.

The American Muslim tries again:

And the LORD our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. At God’s instructions, the Israelites “utterly destroyed the men, women, and the little ones” leaving “none to remain.” And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain. (Deuteronomy 2:33-36)

At this point, you can probably guess that there is something being left out. If you look at the original passage, you’ll find that it refers to the Battle of Jahaz and even says “at that time” (emphasizing that this is history – not edict).

Next is this passage from Joshua:

Joshua said to the people of Israel, “The Lord has given you the city of the all silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord: They shall come into the treasury of the Lord. The people utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword. (Joshua 6:21-23 as Quoted by the American Muslim)

The manipulation of the original passage is so extensive that the verse is barely recognizable. The author employs both omission and juxtaposition to try and emphasize that the city in question was destroyed. In fact, the original does say that not everyone within the city was killed. Even so, this is still a violent passage… but it is not open-ended instruction.

The city in question was Jericho, and the verses tell of the battle between the ancient Israelites and the inhabitants therein – and the subsequent massacre. It is obviously a historical passage, and it no more inspires violence than reading an account of the Japanese slaughter of the people of Nanjing in 1937.

The American Muslim then pulls a verse from the Old Testament that it says can be interpreted to mean that apostates should be stoned:

“And he should go and worship other gods and bow down to them or to the sun or the moon or all the army of the heavens, …and you must stone such one with stones and such one must die.” (Deuteronomy 17:3-5, as quoted by the American Muslim)

What does the ellipsis leave out, you may be wondering? Well, it turns out that this was yet another specific command handed down to a specific people at a specific time:

“If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the LORD gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God in violation of his covenant, and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars in the sky, and this has been brought to your attention, then you must investigate it thoroughly. If it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death” (Actual text)

No Christian in their right mind would kill someone for worshipping a different god based on this passage. While it’s true that Christian apostates have been killed in sporadic and rare historical incidents, it was not the example of Jesus, nor is it a part of Christian teaching.

As we have already pointed out, however, Islam’s most reliable Hadith mandates the execution of apostates from Islam. It is firmly established in Islamic law, since it is the example set forth by Muhammad himself.

The American Muslim then submits a rare New Testament verse as proof that Christians can interpret the Bible as a command to murder in the way that Jihadis wage holy war:

“Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” (Romans 1:20-32, as quoted by the American Muslim)

It is unclear why the author cites verses 20-32 but quotes only the last verse. The full text of the passage actually contains a rebuke against killing and it assigns judgment to God alone. The next verses in sequence confirm this:

“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?” (Romans 2:1)

God is the judge, and not man, according to the context of this passage. How anyone is supposed to interpret this to mean exactly the opposite – that they should kill another human being – is a leap of logic that escapes this writer (and generations of Christians as well, apparently).

Muhammad’s own words, however, contain no such cryptic message:

“Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not.” (Quran 2:216)

Now, at last, The American Muslim pulls out the grand finale – the famous passage from Numbers that is quoted so enthusiastically by the detractors of Western religion:

“Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man intimately. But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves.” (Numbers 31:17-18)

From the way this is quoted, it sounds as if God is telling today’s Bible-thumpers to kill every man within reach and enslave their women and children. What a horrible world this would be if Christians took this fragment literally and killed the nearest person.

So why aren’t the Jews and Christians of today doing this?

Well, it’s most likely because there aren’t any Midianites around, since that was the unfortunate tribe on which this vengeance is specifically commanded – as it is obvious from the surrounding verses. Again, this is a historical narration that clearly refers to an obscure tribe, unlike many of the open-ended passages of violence against unbelievers, “idolaters,” polytheists, Jews and Christians found in the Qur’an.

Contemporary Islamic apologists, such as the author of this American Muslim piece, apparently borrowed this research from secular critics of Christianity, who use passages such as these to make dark insinuations about the character of the god of the Bible and thus bolster their rejection of all religion.

This certainly makes for some strange bedfellows, given that most atheists would concur that the god of Muhammad is far more violent than the god of the New Testament. (Those who may not agree are free to travel to a Muslim country and see how publicly denying Allah there compares to Christian “intolerance” at home, but they may want to make out a will beforehand).

We’ll leave it to the theologians to respond, since the character of God and the nature of progressive revelation falls outside the scope of this discussion. Our only interest here is in the argument that Muslims are trying to make by citing such passages.

Since Muslims do not argue the point that Muhammad commanded the slaughter and enslavement of others at various times in his last ten years (a practice that his followers have faithfully applied to this very day), their logic here is quite tenuous. At best, these apologists appear to be trying to bring other religions down to the level of Islam, particularly Christianity.

What makes this noteworthy is that Christians and others do not act as if they need to bring Islam down to their religion of choice. The reason is that no other religion regularly kills members of every other faith explicitly in the name its god. And, on the rare occasions when this does happen, the response is anger and denouncement rather than the general indifference that Muslims have for Islamic terror (aside from the 15% or so who openly endorse it).

Islamic terrorists wage holy war on a daily basis because it is the literal command of the Qur’an. Western Muslim apologists (concerned solely with the image of Islam) window-dress these violent passages through a complex series of appeals to a patchwork of external Muslim sources. Then, after delicately arranging the products of this Herculean charade in such a way as to convince the rest of us that these Qur’anic verses of violence are not what they appear, the apologist steps back, wipes the sweat from his brow and says, “See how clear it is? No Muslim could possibly interpret this command to kill as a command to kill.”

Well, why are these verses in the Qur’an at all, then? If they are supposed to be history, then why do they appear as imperative? Why isn’t the context right there in the text as it is in the Old Testament?

After all, this is supposed to be Allah’s perfect book. How is it that it is so vulnerable to the worst sort of “misinterpretation”?

Lacking a decent answer to these questions, Muslims attack the Bible instead.

Also: The Political Violence of the Bible and the Koran by Bill Warner in the American Thinker. This article points out that about 67% of the Quran is devoted to Jihad. The Islamic trilogy (the Quran, Hadith and Sira) contain 9.6 times as much violence as the Hebrew Bible (there New Testament has none).

The difference, as we point out in this article is not just quantitative, but one of quality as well. As Warner puts it: “The political violence of the Koran is eternal and universal. The political violence of the Bible was for that particular historical time and place. This is the vast difference between Islam and other ideologies. The violence remains a constant threat to all non-Islamic cultures, now and into the future.”

Hi all,
As a concerned American I am constantly amazed at the apathy or naivete of our politicians and military about Islamic terror and the worldwide Islamic agenda. Today, a good friend of mine sent me the following several excerpts from a speech given by a Lebanese Christian who has experienced first-hand what will eventually happen in the US if we do nothing to stop it.

I give you the following:

EVERY AMERICAN NEEDS TO READ THIS!
Editor’s Note: Below are selected excerpts from Brigitte Gabriel’s speech delivered at the Intelligence Summit in Washington DC

We gather here today to share information and knowledge. Intelligence is not merely cold hard data about numerical strength or armament or disposition of military forces. The most important element of intelligence has to be understanding the mindset and intention of the enemy. The West has been wallowing in a state of ignorance and denial for thirty years as Muslim extremist perpetrated evil against innocent victims in the name of Allah.

I was ten years old when my home exploded around me, burying me under the rubble and leaving me to drink my blood to survive, as the perpetrators shouted, ‘Allah Akbar!’ My only crime was that I was a Christian living in a Christian town. At 10 years old, I learned the meaning of the word ‘infidel.’

I had a crash course in survival. Not in the Girl Scouts, but in a bomb shelter where I lived for seven years in pitch darkness, freezing cold, drinking stale water and eating grass to live. At the age of 13, I dressed in my burial clothes going to bed at night, waiting to be slaughtered. By the age of 20, I had buried most of my friends–killed by Muslims. We were not Americans living in New York , or Britons in London . We were Arab Christians living in Lebanon.

As a victim of Islamic terror, I was amazed when I saw Americans waking up on September 12, 2001, and asking themselves ‘Why do they hate us?’ The psychoanalyst experts were coming up with all sort of excuses as to what did we do to offend the Muslim World. But if America and the West were paying attention to the Middle East they would not have had to ask the question. Simply put, they hate us because we are defined in their eyes by one simple word: ‘infidels.’

Under the banner of Islam ‘la, ilaha illa Allah, muhammad

rasoulu Allah,’ (None is god except Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah) they murdered Jewish children in Israel, massacred Christians in Lebanon, killed Copts in Egypt, Assyrians in Syria, Hindus in India, and expelled almost 900,000 Jews from Muslim lands. We Middle Eastern infidels paid the price then. Now infidels worldwide are paying the price for indifference and shortsightedness.

Tolerating evil is a crime. Appeasing murderers doesn’t buy protection. It earns one disrespect and loathing in the enemy’s eyes. Yet apathy is the weapon by which the West is committing suicide. Political correctness forms the shackles around our ankles, by which Islamist’s are leading us to our demise.

America and the West are doomed to failure in this war unless they stand up and identify the real enemy: Islam. You hear about Cahaba and Salafi Islam as the only extreme form of Islam. All the other Muslims, supposedly, are wonderful moderates. Closer to the truth are the pictures of the irrational eruption of violence in reaction to the cartoons of Mohammed printed by a Danish newspaper. From burning embassies, to calls to butcher those who mock Islam, to warnings that the West be prepared for another holocaust, those pictures have given us a glimpse into the real face of the enemy. News pictures and video of these events represent a canvas of hate decorated by different nationalities who share one common ideology of hate, bigotry and intolerance derived from one source: authentic Islam. An Islam that is awakening from centuries of slumber to re-ignite its wrath against the infidel and dominate the world. An Islam which has declared ‘Intifada’ on the West.
America and the West can no longer afford to lay in their lazy state of overweight ignorance. The consequences of this mental disease are starting to attack the body, and if they don’t take the necessary steps now to control it, death will be knocking soon. If you want to understand the nature of the enemy we face, visualize a tapestry of snakes. They slither and they hiss, and they would eat each other alive, but they will unite in a hideous mass to achieve their common goal of imposing Islam on the world.

This is the ugly face of the enemy we are fighting. We are fighting a powerful ideology that is capable of altering basic human instincts. An ideology that can turn a mother into a launching pad of death. A perfect example is a recently elected Hamas official in the Palestinian Territories who raves in heavenly joy about sending her three sons to death and offering the ones who are still alive for the cause. It is an ideology that is capable of offering highly educated individuals such as doctors and lawyers far more joy in attaining death than any respect and stature life in society is ever capable of giving them.

The United States has been a prime target for radical Islamic hatred and terror. Every Friday, mosques in the Middle East ring with shrill prayers and monotonous chants calling death, destruction and damnation down on America and its people. The radical Islamist deeds have been as vile as their words. Since the Iran hostage crisis, more than three thousand Americans have died in a terror campaign almost unprecedented in its calculated cruelty along with thousands of other citizens worldwide. Even the Nazis did not turn their own children into human bombs, and then rejoice at their deaths as well the deaths of their victims. This intentional, indiscriminate and wholesale murder of innocent American citizens is justified and glorified in the name of Islam.
America cannot effectively defend itself in this war unless and until the American people understand the nature of the enemy that we face. Even after 9/11 there are those who say that we must engage our terrorist enemies, that we must address their grievances. Their grievance is our freedom of religion. Their grievance is our freedom of speech. Their grievance is our democratic process where the rule of law comes from the voices of many not that of just one prophet. It is the respect we instill in our children towards all religions. It is the equality we grant each other as human beings sharing a planet and striving to make the world a better place for all humanity. Their grievance is the kindness and respect a man shows a woman, the justice we practice as equals under the law, and the mercy we grant our enemy. Their grievance cannot be answered by an apology for who or what we are.

Our mediocre attitude of not confronting Islamic forces of bigotry and hatred wherever they raised their ugly head in the last 30 years, has empowered and strengthened our enemy to launch a full scale attack on the very freedoms we cherish in their effort to impose their values and way of life on our civilization.

If we don’t wake up and challenge our Muslim community to take action against the terrorists within it, if we don’t believe in ourselves as Americans and in the standards we should hold every patriotic American to, we are going to pay a price for our delusion. For the sake of our children and our country, we must wake up and take action. In the face of a torrent of hateful invective and terrorist murder, America ‘s learning curve since the Iran hostage crisis is so shallow that it is almost flat. The longer we lay supine, the more difficult it will be to stand erect.

This is all coming true. A non-patriot pro-Muslim is President of this great country. How can this happen?? APATHY, that’s how!!! Send this around.

Brigitte Gabriel is an expert on the Middle East conflict and lectures nationally and internationally on the subject. She’s the former news anchor of World News for Middle East television and the founder of AmericanCongressforTruth.com

There has been a lot of controversy over the Obama Administration’s relentless attack against the governor and the state of Arizona over their legislation to help cope with the invasion of their state by illegal aliens, criminals, and Mexican drug cartels, but what many may not realize is that it may be worse that we think. Please carefully read the following article and judge for yourself.

Wrong Court Ruled on Arizona Law

In a stunning development that could potentially send the nation into a Constitutional crisis, an astute attorney who is well-versed in Constitutional law states that the ruling against the State of Arizona by Judge Susan Bolton concerning its new immigration law is illegal.

The attorney in question submitted her assertion in a special article in the Canada Free Press. Her argument states in part, “Does anyone read the U.S. Constitution these days? American lawyers don’t read it. Federal Judge Susan R. Bolton apparently has never read it. Same goes for our illustrious Attorney General Eric Holder.

But this lawyer has read it and she is going to show you something in Our Constitution which is as plain as the nose on your face.

“Article III, Sec. 2, clause 2 says: “In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction.”

In other words, the Judge in the Arizona case has absolutely no Constitutional jurisdiction over the matter upon which she ruled. As the Constitution makes abundantly clear, only the U.S. Supreme Court can issue rulings that involve a state. This means that neither Judge Bolton nor the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco , to which the case is being appealed, have any legal standing whatsoever to rule on the issue. Thus, U.S. Attorney-General Eric Holder filed the federal government’s lawsuit against the state of Arizona in a court that has no authority to hear the case.

In a related development, another explosive discovery was made by those who actually take the Constitution seriously. The Constitution specifically allows an individual state to wage war against a neighboring country in the event of an invasion, should there be a dangerous delay or inaction on the part of the federal government.

From Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution, we find these words: No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”

No one who is actually familiar with the crisis at the southern border can deny that Arizona is endangered by the relentless assault of lawless Mexican invaders who ignore our laws, inundate our schools and medical facilities with unpaid bills, and even endanger the very lives of citizens with criminal drug cartels that engage in kidnapping, murder, human trafficking, and other mayhem, including aiming missile and grenade launchers directly at U.S. border cities from just across the Mexican border. This is every bit as much of an invasion as the nation of Iran sending in a fleet of warships to the Port of Charleston .

The Constitution that forms the basis of the rule of law in this country says that Arizona has legal right to protect itself in the case of inaction or delay on the part of the federal government, including waging war in its self-defense.

This, when coupled with the clear Constitutional mandate that only the Supreme Court hear cases involving the states, should be ample legal basis for attorneys representing Arizona to go after the federal government with a vengeance.

Governor Jan Brewer and the stalwart members of the Arizona legislature have ample legal reason to stand firm against the illegal bullying of an arrogant, lawless federal government. And there are established procedures by which Federal Judge Susan R. Bolton can be removed from her position as a result of her violating her oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution for the United States of America .

In one big stroke, Beck has all but claimed God, country, and patriotism for the Mormons, and now the Christian community will be forced into a “me too” sort of thing, possibly turning into a battle to see who can show themselves to be more patriotic, more faithful to God, etc. What’s that old saying – the last story teller never stands a chance? Also, the liberals and the atheist/agnostic crowd will get a big kick out of seeing Christians and Mormons at each other’s throats, if it indeed comes to that. It will also force the “religious right” Christians to take a long and hard look at their relationship with Mormons, Mormon support of conservative (read Republican?) candidates and conservative-sponsored legislation, and Mormon money – which helps run the engines of many conservative candidates. It’s a fact that Mormons have fully adopted the Republican Party and have contributed millions to Republican candidates and conservative causes for decades. It is also a fact that per capita, they generally show much more commitment to supporting conservative candidates and causes than many of their Christian counterparts. This then raises the question, are Christians as committed to telling the truth and sharing the Gospel as the Mormons are in telling their story and in sharing their false gospel? It also forces us to ask whether we are Christians in deed or in name only. Are we the lukewarm people which we are warned not to be, that Jesus will spit out of His mouth come judgment day? When will the “sleeping giant”, as Billy Graham calls us, finally wake up and take the stand that Christ wants us to take, to defend our Christian beliefs and to take back our country that is in its current sad state of affairs? I may be wrong but it seems to me that many Christians simply don’t care enough about things – aren’t upset and/or willing to get out of their “comfort zones” and take some heat, to do more than occasionally gripe about it and then go on with their daily lives. Could it be that the easy life that Christians have in the US has lulled us all into a deadly complacency so that we don’t take a stand on important issues anymore and just let the other side have their way? Beyond that, doesn’t it now seem that many Christians, including some fairly prominent Christian leaders, think that either Beck is a Christian and we should leave him alone or that he is doing Christian work and we should leave him alone and not criticize what he is doing?

Don’t get me wrong – last Saturday’s rally in DC was incredible and wouldn’t it be great if something similar could happen in every major city in the US. That’s not my point. When Glenn Beck speaks about God, he is talking about the Mormon god (I believe they call him Jehovah and/or “heavenly father”) and not the Christian God of the Bible. When he talks about Jesus, again, he is talking about the Mormon version of Jesus and not the Jesus of the Bible. So what, you might say. So what indeed. According to Mormon theology, their god (heavenly father, etc) is only one of billions that are all through the universe, unlike the God the Father who is the one and only Creator of the universe and everything in it. Their Jesus is the spirit-brother of Lucifer, otherwise known as Satan, unlike the Jesus of the Bible, who is our Savior and is one with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit and reigns with them in heaven.

Beck may have even had a pure motive for doing last Saturday’s event that didn’t involve trying to generate converts to Mormonism. But, he IS a Mormon and a very dedicated one, and one whose mentor was a renegade Mormon with such unusual teachings, even for mainstream Mormonism, that Mormon leaders removed the man from BYU. Mormonism is NOT Christian, in spite of the Mormon claim that Mormonism is the one true church. If you go to Beck’s website, just about every page has some sort of invitational phrase, offering to guide potential converts to Mormons or to Beck himself, who will help you on the path to Mormonism. As a good Mormon, it is his duty to try to convert everyone he can to Mormonism, and that is a fact. He has a Mormon agenda, one that includes trying to re-write the history of the American Indians, as well as trying to establish as fact the Mormon claim that the American Indians are somehow descended from the “lost tribes of Israel”, contrary to well-established fact. In his attempts to do so, he has lumped the US government, institutions like the Smithsonian, and others, in a massive conspiracy to in his words “re-write the history of the American Indians”, and claims that they are the ones in error, citing a plethora of bogus information and pseudo-scientific “evidence” from LDS sources, most of them with absolutely no legitimate credentials whatsoever. The problem is that absolute lack of credible evidence doesn’t matter to Mormons, because they are driven by their feelings and their “testimony”, which then trumps all scientific, historical, archaeological, and any other kind of solid evidence which calls into question any of their beliefs. It was either Brigham Young or one of the other early leaders who stated that they will have their own history, their own math, their own literature, their own science, and basically their own reality.

You will notice that so far, the LDS leadership have been extremely quiet regarding Beck, but in many of the “unofficial” LDS websites, they are openly praising him and his efforts to evangelize our corrupt nation and expose it to Mormonism. He has also possibly turned into one of the biggest threats to liberalism in the US, and that has the liberals and the atheists/agnostics in a total uproar. In fact, I believe that they may now be more infuriated with Beck than Palin, as well as at the people who have been chanting “Palin – Beck for President and VP”.

So what next? What do we do to counter the Mormon threat? I call it a threat because Mormons would have us believe that their church is the only true Christian church and Mormonism is trying to pass itself off as Christianity, much like a chameleon changes its colors to blend in with its surroundings, and it is doing a very good job. The answer is very simple – do what Christ said to do – the Great Commission. Share the gospel with everyone. Raise our children in a truly Christian home and lead them by a Christian example. Perhaps most importantly, live our Christian faith and take a stand for our beliefs and our country. Talk to our Mormon neighbors and try to show them the truth about Mormonism in a loving manner and not in an insulting or egotistical way. We must be as committed and willing to preach the truth as the Mormons are to preach their false doctrine. Pray and ask for God’s enabling power, bathing the whole process in prayer. After all, with God nothing is impossible. Don’t ever be discouraged. As it says in Romans chapter 8: 38, 39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus”.